This invention relates in general to new and useful improvements in panel doors as used on furniture and kitchen cabinets, and more particularly to the construction of such panel doors as it relates to the panel's inside corner.
It is well known the construction of conventional panel doors as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. The conventional panel door consists of a center panel 11 and four frame parts 12, 13, 14 and 15. Prior to assembling parts 11-15, various radii 16a, 16b and chamfers 16c are cut into the parts. The conventional panel door has a principal drawback. The door has a tendency for its parts to separate as a result of variations in its environment, such as temperature and/or humidity.
Simulated raised panel doors as shown in FIG. 3 are fabricated from a single sheet of material therefore having no parts to separation as the case with conventional doors. The simulated door is formed by machining the various radii and chamfers of the conventional door into the face of a single sheet of material, such as medium density fiberboard. The radii and chamfers are reproduced using various router bits also shown in FIG. 3. The disadvantage with the simulated door is in its appearance. Though it has a similar appearance to the conventional raised panel door, the exception is that the corners, of the panel section lack a square inside comer that result from the assembly of parts 11-15 of the conventional method. The inability to reproduce the square inside corners in the simulated method is the result of the use of router bits and particularly router bit 18 as shown in FIG. 3. Router bit 18 being of a cylindrical shape including a circumferential curved cutting blade 20 prohibits it from cutting a square inside corner. As shown in FIG. 4 the surface shape of router bit 18 leaves corner 22, a curved corner, the radius of which equals the radius of the router bit. One can overcome the affects of curved comers by using a router bit which comes to a point or a chisel. However, these techniques for producing square inside corners are expensive and time consuming.
Accordingly, it is the objective of the present invention to provide a means of overcoming the disadvantages found with both conventional and simulated panel doors, as well as to broaden the design limits of panel doors through the use of corner appliques.